Malt caramel from tubers of Cyperus esculentus

Abstract This work was done to ascertain the feasibility of obtaining caramel from malted tubers of Cyperus esculentus . The tubers of C. esculentus were partially germinated for 10 days and sun-dried for 24 h. The sun-dried samples were then kilned at 70°C for 24 h and at 120°C for 5 h for further caramelization. The kilned samples were finely crushed, infused with deionized water at 60°C and the malt extract heated up to 127°C, to give a brown-black syrupy substance, caramel, with specific gravity 38.97±0.77°Be. Reducing sugars as d -glucose in the unmalted tubers before and additional sugars after hydrolysis for 30 min were 24.75±4.54 and 64.80±2.28 mg/g of sample, and in the green malt 123.13±4.28 and 82.07±4.13 mg/g of sample, respectively.